Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that can communicate with an external device via a network. More particularly, the present invention relates to the information processing apparatus that can output data on an operation screen on which soft keys are arranged using Virtual Network Computing (VNC) to an operation unit and an external device.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, using the technology called Virtual Network Computing (VNC from AT&T Laboratories Cambridge), data on an operation screen displayed on a display of an information processing apparatus can be output to a remote device (external device) connected via a network, and displayed thereon. According to another technology, a soft keyboard (also referred to as a software keyboard, a virtual keyboard, or a screen keyboard) is displayed on a display, and a user can input a character to an information processing apparatus by touching a soft key on the soft keyboard. Further, when a user touches a soft key using the soft keyboard, a character corresponding to the touched soft key is displayed on the display, and also the touched soft key itself can be highlighted, for example, the color of the toughed soft key can be changed. The highlighted soft key help the user check whether the soft key is properly touched.
When the VNC technology is used, if the soft key is touched on the soft keyboard displayed by the information processing apparatus, the soft key is also highlighted on a display of the external device being connected using the VNC similarly to the information processing apparatus. Consequently, the soft key is highlighted on the device (a remote external device connected using the VNC) whose soft keyboard is not operated. As a result, a user operating the external device can easily see which soft key is operated.
To solve such an issue, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-284375 discusses a technique for not highlighting an operated soft key when highly-confidential information such as a password is entered. However, the information processing apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-284375 does not selectively perform the highlighting of the soft key touched by the user based on a type thereof.